The blog of artist Dean Scheppel- dragondean.com / maugryph.com

Woman Portrait 01

I kinda finished it. It’s ok. Lighted the skin and lips, cropped the painting. It was quite the challenge for me for some reason. More realistic portrait painting is out of my comfort zone so I need to practice more portraits in the future. Next time I will use a actual reference. Maybe that will help me somewhat.

3 thoughts on “Woman Portrait 01”

I use photo references a lot but now I find that actual models, if I can get them, real people are much easier and more interesting to draw. I dunno why but somehow I see things better on real people. Looking at a photo is much more confusing to me, but if I see a real person I “grok” where the lines go much better. It is as if I trust my fingers to follow my eyes and “just draw” when I draw from life. Anyhow I think you will find references photo or real very helpful if you have not used them. I know i did! When you draw from imagination, you really miss a lot and it is amazing the sorts of things your mind just doesn’t “see”. Nevertheless, this is a very good job indeed for not using an actual reference. I really like her “snarl”! Also loved the sad dragon, with glasses if i recall?

Thank you for taking the time to comment. I agree with you. Living breathing models are always better then photos. the trouble is finding a friend that is patient enough just to stand there when I draw them :D. I find if I draw from my imagination sometimes I will use some sort of symbols I learned to make a head and those aren’t always accurate (this is from me drawing mostly cartoons in the past). That’s why I try force myself to do research so I don’t get caught using my old symbols and see what I’m drawing as shape and form. It’s a constant battle to get out of symbol mode and stay in form/value mode.

I’m glad you liked my dragon :D I been drawing him a lot lately and in different ways since I am making him a character in a animation/webcomic thing.

So pleased that my comment went over well. I has hoped not to offend and it seems i did not. Thank you!

I usually have only person i can count on for a stable model, because she sits in a chair along part of every day and i jsut draw her from different angles. Otherwise, even in my buildings community of over 250 people i am loathe to ask people ti sit or godforbid stand for me. And yet, if i offer them a portrait from the endeavor, many have responded favorably. In fact, when i asked one elderly lady who does needlepoint g hours in a chair if i could draw her, she was thrilled. Everyone else, as it turned out, was jealous, unbeknownst to me…so the trick is to NOT impose an awkward position, but to find someone doing something, concentrating on something sitting down at leisure ( unless you are lucky enough- to find some one doing a stationary activity standing up.. If you ask the, first if you can sketch them, then you know they dont mind and may not might your interrupting later to Reassume a pose you need to study a little more carefully. People love having someone draw them, paint them. ( they may not always love the results because they are vain but they love the attention of being drawn etc.) more to say but i will come back to this later….